Round 10: Kohler Grand Prix. Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 23-25.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 10: Kohler Grand Prix. Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. June 23-25.

The 2016 Kohler Grand Prix was the first major AOWR event to be held at Road America, since the Champ Car Generac Grand Prix of Road America, in August 2007. Up until then, Road America had been a perennial event on the CART/Champ Car calendar, from 1982 - 2007, with the exception of 2005 due to payment issues. The first race was won by Héctor Rebaque for Forsythe Racing, in a March 82C-Ford Cosworth DFX and Sébastien Bourdais won the 2007 race for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, in a Panoz DP-01-Cosworth XFE. With the merger of Champ Car and the IRL in 2008, the race was dropped from the calendar.

The very first race to be held at Elkhart Lake was in 1950 and organized by the Chicago Region and Milwaukee Region of The Sports Car Club of America. It was the first of three races from 1950 - 1952, which were held on courses layed out on public roads. However, after a fatal accident at Watkins Glen in 1952, it was decided to discontinue motor racing on all public roads and the event was moved to a private, purpose built course. Highway engineer Clif Tufte, got together with local citizens and the Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America to develop and build a permanent racecourse. On September 10, 1955, Road America held its first SCCA national race weekend.

Since then, the track has hosted many major American motorsport's series, including the American Le Mans Series, CART, NASCAR and the United States Road Racing Championship. During this time the layout has hardly changed, apart from a chicane that was installed for AMA motorcycle competitors at The Kink.

Last year's race was won by Will Power, equaling Johnny Rutherford with 13th place for the most IndyCar victories. Power qualified on Pole, taking the lead from the start of the race, where he remained for the duration largly unchallenged, except for the last few laps. Tony Kanaan was able to close the gap on Power to only half a second by the final lap. However, Power had saved most of his push-to-passes, allowing him to use them for most of the final lap, holding of Kanaan. There was only one caution period on On lap 40, when the rear suspension on Conor Daly's car failed, sending him into the wall in turn one.

Some trivia:
The driver with the most wins: 3.
Mario Andretti: 1983, 1984, 1987.
Emerson Fittipaldi, 1986, 1988, 1982.
Michael Andretti: 1991, 1992, 1996.

The team with the most wins: 10.
Newman/Haas Racing: 1983, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2007.

Original track layout:


Current track layout:


Length: 4.048 miles (6.515 km)
Turns: 14

Lap record:
Dario Franchitti, August 19, 2000. 1:39.866, 145.924 mph (234.84 km/h). Team Kool Green, Reynard 2KI-Honda HRK. CART FedEx Championship Series.

Last year's winner:
Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6.

Laps 50
Distance 202.4 Miles (325.731 km)
Race Time 1:39:10.3044
Speed 121.426 Mph (195.416 km/h)

Cautions:
1, laps 4.

TV Broadcast
NBCSN, Jun 25.
12:30pm ET.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Esteban Gutierrez to drive for Dale Coyne this weekend and signs a deal for the rest of the season.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130291

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Esteban Gutierrez to drive for Dale Coyne this weekend and signs a deal for the rest of the season.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130291

Good for him! Deserved.

Excellent post 1 BJS! One thing: Will Power and Johnny Rutherford have more than 13 wins. Was that a typo or am I missing something?

You'd have to think Power would be the favorite again.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Good for him! Deserved.

Excellent post 1 BJS! One thing: Will Power and Johnny Rutherford have more than 13 wins. Was that a typo or am I missing something?

You'd have to think Power would be the favorite again.

Cheers. It was a typo and thanks for pointing it out. I shouldn't do these intros so late at night.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Aleshin could miss this weekend's race at Road America, giving Robert Wickens the drive at SPM.

http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/130301

[fasterthanyou1]

This is awesome, thanks for sharing. I'm just getting involved with motor sport properly for the first time and this type of style is so interesting and helpful!

[NaBUru38]

Welcome to Ten Tenths, fasterthanyou1! I hope that you enjoy talking and learning about motorsport

[JHamilton]

TK's visor cam:
https://youtu.be/diPUI54oRjs

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying results:

Congrats to Helio Castroneves on his 50th pole. I wonder if he can translate that into a win because his last win was Race 2 of the 2014 Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix? Otherwise Penske seem to have found their form, with all four cars at the top of the Fast Six. Aleshin managed to sort out his visa issues and is back in his seat with SPM. Robert Wickens,will have to wait for another opportunity.

1 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m41.3007s
2 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m41.3611s 0.0604s
3 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m41.6608s 0.3601s
4 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m42.0385s 0.7378s
5 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m42.9308s 1.6301s
6 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1m45.0464s 3.7457s
7 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m42.7566s
8 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m42.8614s
9 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.2105s
10 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.3221s
11 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.7959s
12 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.9786s
13 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m42.9039s
14 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m42.8875s
15 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.0171s
16 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m42.9077s
17 Esteban Gutierrez, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.1652s
18 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m42.9132s
19 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.8891s
20 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1m43.4111s
21 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m44.1579s

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying is live. http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Qualifying is live. http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

I watched my first Indy qualifying outside of the 500 in years. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a clean start but they weren't exactly aligned.

[tux]

I'm not sure anyone will beat penske

[bjohnsonsmith]

The TV director really messed that up. That was a good battle with Power and Rossi.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Nice move by Newgarden.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Sato loses it and is stopped on the track at the Kink. First FCY.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Great restart by Dixon. This race is finally coming a live.

[tux]

Expected penske to win easily but the only competitive ganassi beat them all 🤗

[bjohnsonsmith]

I thought the race was rather dull to begin with and it took a while to get going. Maybe because they were all watching and waiting each other and a little unsure with the extended race length. I thought it might come alive after the first round of pitstops but it didn't until after the first FCY. I enjoyed the last 15 laps or so.

[Paradise City]

The director made some appalling decisions. Broke away from some tough sharp-end battles....to look at some backmarker getting dissected in the pits.

Anyway, a great win for Dixie, showin' up that Penske train.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Race results:

1 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1h47m18.9870s
2 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 0.5779s
3 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 4.1918s
4 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 4.9721s
5 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 5.7227s
6 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 14.7178s
7 Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 21.6338s
8 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 22.2273s
9 Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 23.3076s
10 Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 24.3586s
11 Carlos Munoz, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 26.1402s
12 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 33.4983s
13 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 38.1370s
14 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 39.8433s
15 Conor Daly, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 43.1988s
16 J.R. Hildebrand, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m16.5039s
17 Esteban Gutierrez, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1m28.4634s
18 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
19 Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1 Lap
20 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 2 Laps
21 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. Contact

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

The director made some appalling decisions. Broke away from some tough sharp-end battles....to look at some backmarker getting dissected in the pits.

Anyway, a great win for Dixie, showin' up that Penske train.

Indycar director isn't the best. He often values watching random cars pit stops rather than an on track battle, or following a car back onto track to see where it ends up. Often the most action is when you see a car rejoin and the battle between him and those on track, whether someone got the undercut or the other way around. The director doesn't seem to understand this and always cuts away.

Good to see Dixon hand it to the dominant Penske team though. There's only 1 driver who could have beaten Penske today, if he ran a flawless race, and he did.

[fieldodreams79]

Finished this one late last night....

Only Takumasahn could go off at the kink and barely hit anything.

Power was Power.

Dixon was Dixon!

I missed some of the director changes, but I guess I’m used to having “non-motor racing” people directing coverage of motor races. It was much worse for the NASCAR race on the weekend.

And PT naming moves based on drivers is a little rich considering PT “Paul Tracyed” a bunch.

Entertaining race, with lots of passing and battles throughout! Always good to see IndyCars at Road America.

[NaBUru38]

The visor cam was nice on ovals, but on a road course it's unreal.

I think that onboard cameras shouldn't have stabilizer. The Senna/Prost onboards were more interesting than current ones, as you see everything shaking.

I hate the crawling scorebar. They should use a vertical bar like F1 and MotoGP, or a sliding block like Nascar.

[fieldodreams79]

Yes. More visor cams please.

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I hate the crawling scorebar. They should use a vertical bar like F1 and MotoGP, or a sliding block like Nascar.

Graphics in American broadcasts are on complete overload.

The flashing of driver name with their car color background is very unnecessary and more than annoying for an indicator of whose on board camera we are viewling. The scroll of BREAKING NEWS at the bottom is very unnecessary because I have access to the world wide web.

The scroll of running order is only worthwhile if you have 30 plus competitors. Or do as you say, have a sidebar "scoring tower" with the top 20 and then the next 10 changing out.

Alas, NBCSN / ABC etc all have graphics departments that have to have something to do so they go way overboard. Just glad it's not fox and a groundhog.

Sorry, don't get me started